A Metal as Hard as a Divine Spark

He killed most of the bandits in the blink of an eye.

"Boom!"

The bandit chief's armor shattered. Divine power surged with a sizzling sound, trying to repair the grievous damage from Hermes's punch.

But he had no chance.

As divine power gathered at his chest to heal his wounds, another heavy punch from Hermes came crashing down.

The bandit chief fell.

"Damn it, probably another fool who became a High God by refining a High Godhead."

Hermes cursed.

He collected the Divine Spark, weapons, armor, and all sorts of miscellaneous items that had floated into the air due to the lack of gravity.

He tossed them all into the Golden Space for storage.

Except for the Space Rings.

Most of the things inside them would be devoured by the Golden Space.

Even with the Space Rings, once Hermes claimed ownership of them, most of their contents would meet the same fate.

"Ha!"

After easily claiming ownership of dozens of Space Rings, with only a few resisting, he couldn't help but remark:

"I've realized there's a lot of potential in robbing these bandits."

That was only natural.

Most bandits were poor fools who had become Gods by refining Divine Sparks. If they had any prospects, they wouldn't stay in bandit hideouts for long.

Places like Camel Village were, after all, few and far between.

Besides, even in Camel Village, only a few of the leaders had become Gods through their own efforts.

Most of the other bandits in the village had become Gods by refining Divine Sparks.

Refining Divine Sparks was a one-way road. Once you started, there was no turning back.

You could only keep refining Divine Sparks until you became a High God. Your soul would never be compatible with the Divine Spark, making it impossible to fuse Profound Mysteries. Even your soul defense would be weak.

"Huh? What's this?"

After claiming ownership of the Space Rings and throwing everything inside them into the Golden Space, he noticed something unusual.

"Buzz!"

The Golden Space trembled. The armor and weapons all turned to powder, then vanished into nothingness.

Even the newly acquired Ink Stones.

He had swallowed even the Ink Stones because he had made a major discovery!

Whenever Earth Crystals, Ink Stones, or other currencies of the divine realms were annihilated, it seemed as though they vanished without a trace, but in truth, faint traces of something remained.

They were invisible to the naked eye and undetectable by Spiritual Sense.

But this was the mysterious Golden Space, and Hermes could naturally sense that something was different.

He had a theory:

Maybe Old Black could extract Sovereign's Might from Ink Stones too.

If he really succeeded!

Then he wouldn't need to beg the Sovereign Gods for Sovereign's Might anymore. He could be completely self-sufficient.

That was what Hermes thought.

And that was exactly what he did.

Apart from the Divine Sparks, all the spoils he had gained from killing more than a dozen bands of bandits this time became nourishment for the Golden Space.

Would it improve the Golden Space's ability to devour things?

Either way, he might as well keep feeding it. It wasn't like he'd suffer any real loss.

But this time was different.

An irregular object resembling silver metal floated silently in the Golden Space.

Hermes froze.

"Is there really a metal in the Coiling Dragon World as hard as a Divine Spark?"

"Whoosh!"

The Silver Metal vanished from the Golden Space and appeared in Hermes's hand.

"Boom!"

Middle God power erupted, and the physical strength of his Golden Mountain true body surged to its absolute limit.

The veins bulged on Hermes's arms.

The palm-sized metal lay across his thick fingers as his knotted arm, covered in invisible Golden Threads, suddenly tensed.

"Grrraah!"

He couldn't help letting out a furious roar. He had brought the Mysteries of Power, Mysteries of Gravity Space, and even a small portion of the Earth Element Profound Mystery into play. Hermes had unleashed his full strength.

But the crescent-shaped Silver Metal didn't budge. It didn't even leave the slightest mark.

"Hahaha, excellent!"

Rather than being surprised, Hermes was delighted. Not only did he feel no disappointment, he was filled with excitement.

"Is this a Heaven and Earth Treasure, or a Supreme God Token?"

He wondered to himself.

Normally, most Heaven and Earth Treasures were nearly useless. They might help the weak, but they gradually lost their value to the truly powerful.

"But could a Heaven and Earth Treasure really be this hard?"

The Coiling Dragon World had existed for an extraordinarily long time, having come into being at least a thousand Epochs ago.

Each Epoch lasted as long as six hundred trillion years.

So although he knew the Great Earth God Realm had come into being far more recently than the Four Supreme Planes,

and couldn't compare to the Endless Material Planes either, Hermes still couldn't determine where in the timeline he was.

"I can't believe I'm talking about timelines in the Tomato Universe. It's stupid to even bring them up."

He laughed at himself, then began studying the strange metal in his hand.

The metal was shaped like a new moon in the night sky, its edges smooth and sharp, its surface as polished as a mirror.

When he reached out to touch it, though, he couldn't feel the sharpness one would expect from a cutting edge.

Under the sunlight, it reflected dazzling light, as though countless stars danced across its surface, glimmering with a silvery radiance.

Under the moonlight,

it gave off a soft, faint silver glow, as if it could illuminate the darkest corners.

And yet, its light was gentle,

not the least bit intense.

Silver—everything was silver. Day or night, under the sun or the Purple Moon, the light reflected off the Silver Metal always turned silver.

"But this is Hell. The thing hanging in the sky is the Purple Moon. Where the hell is all this silver light supposed to come from?"

Hermes complained.

"Oh, right."

He seemed to suddenly realize something. Instead of hurrying on, he found a place to study the Silver Metal.

A long time passed, but he still had no idea what it was.

Hermes couldn't help pondering:

"If it's a Supreme God Token, I probably can't claim ownership of it by dripping blood on it. Still, I might as well try."

He acted as soon as the thought occurred to him.

Hermes didn't hesitate.

He'd never heard of anyone dying from claiming ownership of a treasure. It should be safe enough.

Yes, he was that cautious.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have turned back into Golden Mountain and stayed hidden in the Chongxuan Mountain Range for so many years.

Keeping a low profile and quietly making a fortune!

That was the wisdom the ancestors had passed down to Hermes.

"Drip!" His blood, as fluid as liquid metal, fell directly onto the crescent-shaped Silver Metal.

At first, nothing happened.

Slowly, Hermes's strange blood began to seep into it.

It was different from claiming ownership of an artifact!

Claiming ownership of an artifact was almost instantaneous, but this crescent-shaped piece of metal seemed almost alive.

It was as if it were slowly drinking Hermes's blood.

The scene was downright bizarre.

"Rumble!"

Just as Hermes was beginning to think the Silver Metal was nothing special and nothing would happen,

his soul suddenly shook.

"Whoosh!"

The crescent-shaped Silver Metal that had been clasped in his hand vanished. When it appeared again, it was already inside Hermes's sea of consciousness.

In the depths of his sea of consciousness, within a tranquil void, a dazzling silver light suddenly cut through the stillness.

The crescent-shaped piece of Silver Metal appeared in his consciousness like a messenger from across time and space.

Its presence was so sudden, yet so natural, as if it had always belonged there.

An eternity seemed to have passed, as though it had waited only for this moment.

At that very moment, the Silver Metal gave a crisp sound.

"Crack, crack, crack!"

It began to break apart, turning into countless tiny silver particles.